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This Saturday, before most of us have yet to wake from our slumber, many of our H.U.R.T. ohana will already be off and running representing Hawaii at Miwok! The Miwok 100K is very hilly (approximately 11,800 feet of cumulative elevation gain) with spectacular views of San Francisco and the Golden Gate Bridge, Mt. Tamalpais and the Point Reyes National Seashore.

The weather is looking great, they’ve trained hard and I bet they are raring to go. And some may or may not already be there doing some damage at REI. Enjoy the mainland and have a fantastic time!

Over the last few days a couple of the HURT family of runners have had some incredible results and success at two of the toughest ultra races on earth.

First, Larry Inouye started the Hardrock 100 this past Friday morning. If you don't know anything about Hardrock, know that it has 67,984 feet of total elevation change (The HURT 100 has approximately 25,000) and a 48 hour cutoff. Much of the race is above 10,000 feet in elevation with the average of 11,186. Runners cross 13 passes between 12,000 and 13,000 feet. Let's just say it is tough, especially for those of us that live at sea level. Photo courtesy of Cheryl Ridlon. Larry has to be one of the toughest runners I know often logging miles and miles on the trails. As anyone who has ever done one of these races knows, having a great support crew is very important. Here's another photo of Larry and his crew at the finish. Larry is definately Hard Rock tough!!

I hope Larry will write up a race report and we get to see some more photos.

The next runner, Doug Long, ran an equally challenging and extremely difficult ultra in the Badwater 135. Many people may think running on the road has got to be easy compared to a tough mountain run. The image below is the course profile. Badwater is far from a flat run in the desert. Oh, and did I mention heat? Yea, it gets a little hot in the desert, like 93 degrees at 6:00 a.m. up to 118-degrees around 3:00 p.m. Doug got a taste of Badwater last year when he paced and crewed for Hannah Roberts. She returned the favor this year. Based on Doug's results--he crushed it timewise, I think Doug likes the heat!

Again, Congratulations to both runners. We loved following you from afar and look forward to hearing more about both of these great adventures.

Spaces available have been limited to 100, which is why I wanted to share a brief intro to the event with you all.

I do realize it is the week before the Peacock 50k/100k and so might not be an ideal race for many people, but if you feel like a trip to the breath taking, wild and open spaces of Northern Arizona maybe it could be a new race to add to your diary. And Hawaiian fly directly from Honolulu to either Phoenix or Las Vegas!

Personally, I can't wait to run again in Northern Arizona. I met Shaun at NAU, where we were team mates for two years, and it was Shaun who introduced me to the Navajo tradition of running towards the rising sun at dawn, to greet the new day.

The course will wind through the trails that traverse the canyon, and apparently the Bat Canyon Trail is pretty 'rough', along with the elevation, but the beauty of the landscape and the ultra running community outweigh any lung busting issues. It all sounds like good HURT 100 training to me!

Last weekend saw the transgrancanaria trail run. They offer 24k; 42k, 83k and 113k options. I plumped for the 83k. Gran Canaria - one of the Canary Islands off the coast of North Africa in the Atlantic - is quite similar to Oahu in size and general morphology (Canaries are a volcanic chain like Hawaii), but a good deal spikier. We kicked off at 6am from Puerto las Nieves (= snow!) with a brass band in attendance. Excellent climb of 1200m in the dark and then nice bit of flat, fast running through pine forest. Lots of up and down followed. The net ascent is 4,500m (so its like 1.5* run to the sun, but on trails and you get to come down too). Forecast was for strong winds and rain. Winds were strong, but rain at altitude was only drizzle, so actually conditions were very pleasant. It is a North Face production, so was well organised, and the trail marking was excellent. Marvellous way to see the island, and perfect time of year with spring flowers in abundance. Seven aid stations of european style (lots of sausage and cheese etc, and no fruit or PBJs) but the half-way point was superb with penne and clam sauce! After than was mostly down-hill. Almost 30k pretty much continuous downhill. Last bit was murder in a dried up ravine with 4km of loose rocks and hot and dusty. But overall a great experience and hopefully good WS training experience. Nick

Follow the link and then click on the photo and that will take you to the Go Trail Magazine article. There's also a trailer for a film of the run that will be out soon. I'm hoping that we can put together a group of HURT runners to do the Kili Stage Run in 2014,

So I finally made it out to the SD100 course to scope it out...wow...how beautiful that course is going to be. I had to choose between sight seeing over the vistas or tripping down the trail...safety first of course!

Goods and bads to every course. Its not quite the sustained climbing of HURT, but it does have a section that bears striking resemblance to my nemesis, Jr's "Long Road." Its paved, UP, and hot...and if I am timing my run correctly, I am projected to hit it in the early afternoon.

I will say, it became obvious to me today why HURT trains for mainland races at Peacocks. Fireroads, single-track, and the terrain/environment are about the same...

I did meet a newbie today, Ryan, shooting for his first 100M buckle...actually I found all of that out from his female "pacer" as she was ditched as he sped down the trail and she was leaning on a tree. At least she felt like chatting!

More as I progress in my training...I am trying to channel my HURT brothers and sisters out there...(unfortunately, not too many on these trails like to stop a chat like HURT folks...maybe as they recognize me more.)

This past weekend the The Barkley Marathons took place. Runners can choose between the 60-mile fun run or the whole enchilada--the Barkley 100-mile run.

Someone tweeted over the weekend that 12 men had been on the moon and only 10 had ever finished the Barkley 100. Well that number has changed a bit as three runners finished the 100 mile run this weekend. Unofficial results:

Brett Maune 52:03 course record

Jerod Campbell

John Fegyveresi

HURT 100 runner, 21-year old Nickademas Holton (4th place in 2012), completed 4 laps. It is a 20 mile loop, similar to HURT.

Work took me to Queensland last week for a meeting in the rain forest. I was able to squeeze in a couple of trail ultras en route. First was the Maroondah Dam 50k in Victoria near Melbourne on 19th. More challenging than I expected as the scale of the profile plot was in metres, not feet. Very nice conditions - overcast with a light shower, and a mix of single track and fire roads through eucalyptus forests. Quite reminiscent of Miwok. 102 finishers with winning times of 4:13 (m) and 5:09 (f). Second on 26th was the 4-beaches 50k run in Narawntapu - "the Serengeti of Tasmania" according to race director Ian Cornelius. 30-odd starters on this 50/50 beach, single track out and back. Not too much in the way of hills, but still pretty tough owing to great heat. One runner got heat-stroke, but since recovered. Was hoping to see a Tasmanian Devil, but no luck. Winning times were 4:16 and 5:15 with winning woman beating the course record (her own) by 10 mins. Nick